Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the co-founder of an estate planning firm in Chicago. We have two associate attorneys, myself and my partner, and 6 support staff members. Our practice is limited to estate planning, estate administration, and elder law. Our marketing consists totally of referrals from other attorneys, past clients, and other referral sources. We believe that we have a successful practice with revenues consistently exceeding $1.8 million per year. We spend very little on business development and marketing. Should we be doing more?

A. If you have a good website, e-newsletter, and are meeting your revenue and growth goals you may not need to invest any more in marketing and business development. You have been blessed with the referral sources that you have and you should be grateful. However, don't take them for granted - continue to nurture them and give first class service to the clients that they refer to you. Your primary marketing investments should be designed to nurture and enhance these and future referral relationships.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC,(www.olmsteadassoc.com) is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.